August 19, 2005
Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-4769)
James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)
STATUS REPORT: SS05-039
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS05-038
International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 11 crew members completed
a spacewalk just days after the Station commander became the most
experienced space traveler.
Thursday's 298 minute spacewalk by Commander Sergei Krikalev and
Flight Engineer John Phillips was the 62nd to support Station
assembly and maintenance. It was the 34th from the Station and 16th
from the Pirs docking compartment.
The crew's first job was retrieval of one of three canisters from the
Biorisk experiment, a study of the impact of spaceflight on
bioorganisms. It was installed on the Pirs module by Expedition 10 in
January; other canisters will be retrieved on later spacewalks.
The crew moved to the large diameter section of the Zvezda module and
prepared two experiment payloads for removal. The Micro-Particles
Capturer uses aerogels and foam to collect natural and human-made
orbital debris outside the Station. The Space Environment Exposure
Device has samples of possible spacecraft materials like paint,
insulation and lubricants, exposed to the low Earth orbit
environment. Matroshka is a biomedical experiment collecting data on
radiation absorption by crew members on long-duration missions,
especially when spacewalking.
The crew moved aft of Zvezda to install a backup TV camera to assist
docking the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle, a new
cargo craft set to make its first flight next year. The crew
documented the condition of the Kromka experiment, which measures
residue from firing nearby jet thrusters. They also exchanged sample
containers in the Russian materials' exposure experiment called SKK.
By the time the crew transported the experiments and their tools
inside Pirs, they were about 45 minutes behind schedule. The
estimated two hours necessary to complete the last task, relocation
of a Strela cargo crane adapter from Zarya to Pressurized Mating
Adapter 3 on the Unity node, caused Russian mission managers to
postpone it until a later spacewalk.
Yesterday's spacewalk was Phillips' first and Krikalev's eighth. He
collected 36 hours and 10 minutes spacewalking experience on seven
excursions during two missions on the Russian MIR space station.
On August 16, at 1:44 a.m. EDT, Krikalev's total time in space
surpassed Cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev's record of 747 days, 14 hours and
14 minutes. Krikalev flew two missions to Mir; two Shuttle missions;
and two ISS missions.
The Station's Russian Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal system has been
shut down since August 11. Russian specialists are working on a
recovery plan. The Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) in the U.S.
portion of the ISS, which has been scrubbing the air since Vozdukh's
shut down, failed Thursday morning. It failed due to a stuck check
valve, the latest instance of a known and understood problem.
The CDRA is being managed back to operation by flight controllers in
Houston. The crew was informed carbon dioxide levels on the Station
are well below dangerous levels. Plans call for Krikalev to perform
troubleshooting on Vozdukh today.
For information about crew activities, future launch dates, previous
status reports and Station sighting opportunities on the Internet,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
For information about NASA and agency programs on the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html
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